


An Immortal's guide to using a Burner phone

by SaintSaens



Series: Circumnavigo [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Booker being very tired (although not there), Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Nile Freeman Friendship, Confused Nile Freeman, Copley is so done, Domestic Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, I have no idea how to tag, I think it qualifies ?, Immortal Problems, Post-Canon, just Nile being young and not thinking about how Burner phones work, kind of, never underestimate it, spiritual one, technology is a bitch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26860873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintSaens/pseuds/SaintSaens
Summary: Nile sends a message. She doesn't think, hearing the door close behind Andy as the older woman leaves to have a walk through the city. Nile has been waiting to call him for so long, they had agreed she would send him a sign as soon as she has the time, as soon as she's enough in the clear to bother him.He had sworn he would reply. That he wouldn't be wasted. That he would be there, to talk, when she called.So Nile sends a message.*Booker*  she writes.And that's how the circus starts.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Nile Freeman, James Copley & Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Circumnavigo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1959520
Comments: 5
Kudos: 93





	An Immortal's guide to using a Burner phone

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as a stand-alone. Although it is thought of as a part of the Circumnavigo serie (monster), where Nile and Booker start a conversation through messages then calls during Booker's exile. 
> 
> This would be between the 1st and the 2nd chapter of No Man Left Behind.

Nile sends a message. She doesn't think, hearing the door close behind Andy as the older woman leaves to have a walk through the city. Nile has been waiting to call him for so long, they had agreed she would send him a sign as soon as she has the time, as soon as she's enough in the clear to bother him. 

He had sworn he would reply. That he wouldn't be wasted. That he would be there, to talk, when she called. 

So Nile sends a message.

* _Booker_ * 

She taps her finger on her tigh. Sends another one, because she can't be sure the lovers won't be back soon either. And now, it's now that she's alone in the flat. Not later. Now. 

She sends another message.

* _Boooooker_ * 

* _Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooome oooooooooooooooooooooooooooon Old man._ * 

She breathes. It's been a quarter of an hour now. Still no reply. Not even a blank message. Nile deflates, leaning back in the sofa. 

_*I've got time! Now! No one is here for once!*_ she tries at last. 

Half an hour after her first message she gives up. Well, that'll teach her to believe someone who is prone to lying.

\- - - - 

Exactly one hour later, there is a knock on the door. 

Nile straightens up from the old newspaper she had been reading, frowning. 

The knock comes again and this time, she swiftly gets up, reaching for the gun stashed in one of the kitchen's drawer, never leaving the door from her sight. She takes her phone, checking for messages from the others. Nothing comes up.

She mentally wastes a thought to curse Booker too.

And just as she gets closer, the knock comes again but with a rhythm this time. A rhythm she knows well. 

She flings the door open. 

"What the fuck man!" she whispers as Copley stands in front of her with a drenched trench coat and a somber expression."You scared the shit out of me!" Nile continues, gesturing for him to get in. He does, mechanically. She's never seen him so strung up about anything.

"What's the matter? Where are the others?" Nile asks, as he drips water onto the wooden floor. Someone's going to be unhappy about it when they walk home, but Nile doesn't feel like chiding Copley suddenly. Not when his face is like that. 

"The others are fine." Copley says coldly, looking around for a second before striding to the kitchen, leaving her by the entrance. "You and I, on the other hand... We need to talk." 

"What? Why?" 

Copley sits himself down with barely restrained frustration. "Your phone? Where is it?" 

Nile takes it out of her back pocket. Copley shakes his head. "I can't believe it's been three weeks and I have to tell you this now. Come here. Sit down."

Nile suddenly feels like a child in front of her primary school teacher. She locks the door up, and slowly walks to sit in front of Copley. His eyes have strayed to the newspaper pages strewn all over the table. 

"Is that about the Suez Canal?" He asks, disbelief coloring his tone. She opens her mouth but he shakes his head "You know what? Never mind. Sit down. We need to talk." 

She does as she's told. Nile knows when to push and when to listen. That's a listening time apparently for her. 

"Give me your phone." Copley says, blandly as he extends his hand to her.

Nile looks at his hand and back at her phone. "Why should I?" 

"Nile. The team trusts me with the data right? You all trust me to cover your tracks, right?" 

Nile's eyes widened. "It's tracked? How? It's always with me, I never use it-" well, fuck, but that's not true is it now, she thinks. Copley must see her brain connecting the dots because he gives her a sharp smile. 

"Don't play dumb with me kid. Give me your phone." 

Nile thinks back. It's not been a month since she started speaking to Booker. She's never said a word about it. The only one who saw anything, who knows anything, is Nicky. She can't believe he snitched on her for this. 

"Why? You have no right to-"

"I have every right to when you're putting everyone in danger, Nile." 

Nile blinks and laughs "What the fuck did he tell you? I'm not putting anyone in danger! I'm just sending messages!" 

"You're not just sending messages for God's sake! Not when you clearly don't know how to use a burner!" Copley shots back. His hand extends further. "Give me your phone. Now." He enunciates with a dark eye. 

Nile keeps it out of his reach. "You have no right to keep me from speaking with Booker, Copley. That's not part of the deal. It never was. And it never will." 

Copley blinks hollowly. She sees the tiredness in his eyes, the slightly emaciated cheeks, the lack of drive in his face. "I don't give two fucks who you're texting Nile."

Nile blinks back. "Then why the fuck are you yapping at me?" 

"I'm not -" He shakes his head "I'm yapping, as you say, at you because you don't know the basic rules of a burner phone. And I need to teach them to you. Didn't any of the others speak to you about it?" 

"About what?" 

"I'll take that as a no" Copley sighed. "How the fuck did you go three months without messing up, that's beyond me." 

Nile frowns. "I only started using it for real recently" she mumbles. "Do you swear I will still be able to talk to Book if I give you my phone?" 

Copley nods. "I swear. I'll give you his new number. I also swear to God Almighty that if you don't give me your phone now, I'll break your arm and take it myself. Stop wasting my mortal time please." 

Nile makes a face, and leaves her phone falling into Copley's waiting hand. It takes her exactly half a minute to realize that as soon as Copley has the phone in his hand, he takes a small cotton bag out of his pocket, puts the phone inside, places it on the table right in front of him...and take out a hammer from his other coat pocket and smashes it on the phone. 

Nile jumps back "Maaaan!" She lets out as Copley promptly crashes her phone to dust on the kitchen table. "What are you on?" 

Copley stops after a few well placed hits, heaving. "That's satisfying. You have no idea how satisfying that is." He says and he proceeds to drop the bag in the water pitcher Joe had left on the side, where some herbal tea is coolly infusing down for the evening.

Nile's eyes widen. "You're a dead man Copley." she whispers as the bag splashes into the dark green tea.

He shrugs. "I received a call from Booker cursing you to all Hell in every language possible because you had used his known name while texting him. I would rather die than hear him say once more how he would come back at me if I didn't ensure you were all safe and sound, and I didn't teach you how to use a burner phone properly. Joe, right now, and his herbal tea, are the least of my problems believe me." He dries his hand on the towel beside him and nods toward the living room. "We'll let that sit for a few hours. Come, you've got a few things to learn. When are the others supposed to be back?"

Nile watches the bag float in the pitcher, darkening as it drowns. "I don't know" she calls back at Copley, already gone to the living room. 

"We'll make it quick then." 

\- - - 

"You said we can't register phone numbers right?" Nile asks, as she turns her new burner phone (bright pink with a Hello Kitty sticker at the top, Copley has a very bad sense of humor and Nile loves it, too bad for him) in her hands.

"That's right." 

She stays silent, thinking. "How did he know then?" She asks, almost whispering. "How could Booker have known it was me who texted him?" 

She feels Copley walk up to her. He pats her on the shoulder. "He just did, Nile." 

Nile thinks back to the first message she had sent. The river of texts he had received after. And he never once wavered. She knows, after talking to him, after hearing the others speak about him in bits and pieces, he would never have replied the way he did if he had thought she was anyone else. 

He always knew it was her. 

Nile feels her throat tighten. "He's good. I could never do it." 

She hears Copley sigh. "He is." he says "he is. Why do you think it took me so little time to come to you today,eh? Because I know he is that good. And I love my peace too much, thank you." 

Nile snorts. "You're still going to be on Joe's bad side, though."

Copley looks at her, confused. "Oh no. I'm leaving. I'm taking the phone with me to burn it through, just to make sure. But _you_ 'll have to explain to him why he can't drink the tea I'm afraid."

Nile feels her face fall. Then she breathes in and out, getting up from the couch. "Do you think he will notice anything off with the tea, if I don't tell him?" she calls at Copley, who is already in the kitchen getting the bag out of the pitcher.

She hears him choke on his own breath as he laughs.

Nile shrugs. It's worth a try. 

\- - - -

Later that day, when the sun is setting and Joe is drinking his herbal tea slowly while Nicky reads aloud to him (he did say it tasted strangely of iron, as if the tea had corroded since the last time he had tried it, to which Nile proudly didn't say anything and waited), she sends a message to a new number. 

A number Copley had given her, with an intent gaze and the furious understatement of never will she mess up again with these phones. 

* _I'm sorry_ * she writes slowly. 

She stops breathing when her phone pings. 

* _That's my line, kid_ * she reads softly to herself. She wants to laugh at the lack of thoughts Booker always puts in his texts. 

_*Sorry, my bad*_ she receives straight afterward.

_*I meant that's my line.*_

_*You can call me kid for this one.*_ She writes back. He did teach her a thing or two through Copley that day.

 _*So, what did you tell him? Because damn he looked like the hounds of hell were at his heels I swear*_ she starts typing with a smile.

And the night is spent again texting away and talking, about unimportant matters. Nile falls asleep, feeling at home, with her new bright pink phone and someone somewhere wishing her goodnight with a text message. 

**Author's Note:**

> *my brain* Here is a nice idea for a DRABBLE 
> 
> *also my brain* +1000 words later...  
> The desk did get thrown across the room. Because it's impossible.
> 
> Also, all info on how to handle burner phones from : https://fr.crimethinc.com/2017/03/27/burner-phone-best-practices  
> Very good. Especially when you want to go, who knows, gently protesting *hum*walking through*hum* the current Hell-pit we're all more or less living in across the globe. Cheers I guess? 
> 
> Also, not coherent at all? Not using names but still talking about truly personal things on a burner? bad idea if you don't want to get tracked. But. But. Suspension of disbelief, let's leave them with something fluffy to sleep, those poor idiots. 
> 
> I just loved the idea of Booker frantically harassing Copley through any means possible so he could make sure that Nile was fine, and he wouldn't put them in danger again just because the young one had never been taught about data tracking and the like. *sigh* ces jeunes je vous jure....
> 
> (that means "those kids I swear...")


End file.
